Gary Brown: Savoring the words of football's heroes

Sunday

Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement speeches offer insights into the lives of the sport's stars.

Former Dallas Cowboys running back Emmett Smith began his 2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement speech with a nod to his Maker in heaven.

"Thank you to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for blessing me with the talent for playing the sport that I so dearly love."

I was present for that enshrinement in what is now Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. I heard Smith's words and saw his smile as he spoke them. I listened as he presented a message of pride in his accomplishments, mixed with humility.

Sitting beside a handful of Smith's family members, I was assured before he stepped to the podium that if his speech was anything like the way he lived the rest of his life, his words would be special.

"It is an honor to have achieved this level of success," Smith said at the beginning of his speech. "Now I have to take a moment to reflect upon the people who have helped me shape the foundation for who I am as a man and also a football player."

The influence of family, friends, coaches and other mentors was to be appreciated, he said.

"Whatever achievements I've earned over the course of my life," said the man who retired as the NFL's career rushing leader, "have not been due to my abilities alone."

Many others, Smith said, shared his success because they had believed in him and supported him before, during, and beyond a football career that led to induction into the Hall of Fame.

The stadium was filled when Smith spoke. Some of those attending knew him personally. Others were fans. Many more were followers not of America's Team, but of the teams of other enshrinees that year and they came to hear those football stars' words.

"I was blessed to have played with not one but two Hall of Fame quarterbacks — Joe Montana and Steve Young," Rice noted, acknowledging that "I wasn't the most physical or the fastest receiver in the NFL."

"But, they never clocked me on the way to the end zone."

Stand And Listen

Almost all Hall of Fame enshrinees spoke words at their ceremonies that were in their own way memorable. A few of the speeches are easily recalled. Others can be brought to mind by visiting football's shrine, where enshrinement speeches are played on a video screen outside the gallery which exhibits the busts of the heroes of the game.

"I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to ... those who have all been part of making me who I am," said Stark County's own star, Alan Page, during his enshrinement in 1988. "To those of you out there and in Minnesota and in Illinois who have been a part of my success, I say thank you. To my teammates at Central Catholic High School, the University of Notre Dame, the Minnesota Vikings, the Chicago Bears, I say thank you. To the people of Canton, to the people around this country who have supported me over the years, I say thank you."

But, Page also took the opportunity to encourage those who could, through education and support of disadvantaged young people, "help give other children the chance to achieve their dreams."

Such help often is needed, said Chicago Bears legendary running back Gale Sayers at his enshrinement in 1977, as seen in another video played at the Hall of Fame.

"God gave me a great gift, and I had a lot of help developing (it)," said Sayers. "Each of us excels at different things, sometimes in areas that are only a hobby, more often in our life vocation. The most important thing, however, is to strive to do our very best."

Matters Of Toughness

One of the most emotional speeches played at the Hall of Fame on the day of my visit was made by Jim Kelly, the quarterback of the Buffalo Bills who led his team to the Super Bowl and himself to the highest honor his sport could bestow upon him in 2002. But, in his enshrinement speech, Kelly spoke of the strength of another, a young child who had been stricken with a disease but fought bravely enough to live to see his father inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Hunter Kelly, at the age of 8, after a battle against globoid-cell leukodystrophy (Krabbe disease), died in 2005. Kelly himself was diagnosed with cancer in 2013, which wide receiver and Bills teammate Andre Reed spoke about in his enshrinement speech in 2014. Kelly attended that ceremony, and in the Hall of Fame recently Reed's speech closely followed Kelly's on the video screen.

"I was known for my toughness — going across the middle and making the catch," said Reed. "The toughest individual I've ever met in my life is Jim Kelly, No. 12. ... You've endured a lot in your life. The loss of a son and most recently your battle with cancer. I'm honored to call you a teammate and a friend ... and now a fellow Hall of Famer."

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